Publication

Quettar was founded in 1980 by Susan Rule, and edited since then by Steve Pillinger, Michael Poxon, David Doughan and Julian C. Bradfield. In 1995, after 49 issues, Bradfield could no longer find time to edit, and due to the rise of the Internet - Bradfields own Tolklang - submissions became low, and Quettar ceased to exist. Recently, Bradfield has expressed interest in reviving Quettar[1], and started publishing back issues.

Aim

On the back of every issue, the aim of Quettar was written:

QUETTAR is Quenya, or 'High-Elven'. It means 'words', and is the bulletin of the Linguistic Fellowship of the Tolkien Society, whose members are referred to as Quendili, which means 'lovers of language' or 'lovers of Quenya', (though there are some Sindarindili among us). Those who describe themselves as philologists tend to say Lambendili. Feanorian calligraphers are known (perhaps inaccurately) as Tengwardili, runemasters as Certatúri.

The languages which principally interest us are those sub-created by J.R.R. Tolkien, including:

This also involves a degree of interest in Finnish, Welsh, Old English and other 'real world' languages. We stress 'interest'. While expertise is welcome, in order to become a Quendil all you need is love. We trust that knowledge will follow.

As these publications appeared before most of Tolkien's linguistic papers were published in The History of Middle-earth and Vinyar Tengwar, much of it relied on speculation. Little original material was published, though the Tengwar numarals did find their first full appearance in issue 13.